Thursday, September 10, 2009

Health Care for Immigrants

There's no doubt about it, we have a problem with illegal immigration in this country. Fueled by our desire for cheap goods...food mostly....and our lack of will to get it together and hammer out a policy, we've got a lot of people who are here, working, raising their families and taking care of each other who are breaking the law and whose employers are breaking the law.

I get that there's a problem that needs to be solved, and I'm all for solving it. A nation that has lots of shadow people is not a good place for anybody. It invites abuse of law and abuse of persons. We need to fix this. And when we fix it, the issue of how to run a health care program for the people of the nation will be solved.

I don't get the fury about illegal aliens. They are, as a whole, model citizens, full of gumption, willing to work very hard at jobs others don't want and family-centered, upwardly mobile, responsible folks. It's not their fault that this nation doesn't have a useful immigration policy. They are being scapegoated in the healthcare battles and in other parts of the political landscape. It's not fair.

And I don't actually want to have to step over the dying ones in the street. I don't want them incubating contageous diseases because the doors of healthcare are closed to them. I don't want their babies damaged from unassisted births, and I don't want them bearing more babies than they can afford to raise. I bet you don't want those things either. I bet even Rep. Wilson doesn't want those things.

Let's get this healthcare thing done so we can get to work on a sensible, enforcable immigration policy. This is not Calcutta. This is Madam Liberty's golden shore.


7 comments:

Liz Hill said...

Amen, iminister!
I highly recommend the novel Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle. It's old (1995) but sad to say, things have not improved.

Emma said...

yeah, But we can't talk about that now.. Healthcare first immigration reform after.

It's really simple after we bring immigrants who we value under the tent then they will have health care. This only works if health care reform is in place.

Bill Baar said...

I favor open door to any CAFTA NAFTA signatory country. Free movement of goods, free movement of capital, free movement of services, and free movement of labor.

We should be billing the health care systems in the immigrants home country. Not denying care when one of America's biggest potential exports is our first class health care.

WiseLalia said...

It is a complex issue, about which I have some ideas. But, let us start with WHO is going to identify "illegal" immigrants from legal immigrants or native-born citizens? I mean, someone is being carried into the ER and there is a person there who can distinguish such things and make life and death decisions??? Not likely!

Bill Baar said...

Who is the "we" bringing immigrants here?

They're here now. Some of them get care here now. We should be billing their home country's for it.

It doesn't take legislation to do that I bet.

It's hardly premature to be talking about this, as they have been included in the number of uninsured for months now. It's just this last speech that the Prez has been omitting them.

Bill Baar said...

The check isn't when the patient presents at the ER.

The check is when the person presents at the Health Exchange or to their Employer for coverage and HR3200 lacks enforcement to make people prove citzenship when they get insurance.

Bill Baar said...

Footnote: When a non-citzen --legal or illegal-- presents to the Health Exchange for one of the insurance plans, the Exchange should note their nationality and bill their national health care system for their premium.

That's the hook I suspect Democrats loath to approve because it means people have to declare their citzenship.